


Welcome To Hell

by Leni



Series: Relativity Issues [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-19 00:23:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9409109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: Rumpelstiltskin has agreed to a family dinner.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AnnieVH](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnieVH/gifts).



> prompt: family dinner

Belle fidgeted at his side. "Are you sure my dress is okay?" she asked in a small voice, wide eyes taking in the huge mansion that had practically sprung from thin air a few miles away from Storybrooke and the vast gardens surrounding them. "I feel so underdressed."

Rumpelstiltskin wanted to shout that she was a thousand times better than anyone inside these doors, but Belle wouldn't understand the show of temper. All of him rebelled at the thought of bringing this woman to the current center of the Black Fairy's power, and even with his godmother giving a solemn oath that Belle would be safe during this visit, Rumpelstiltskin wanted nothing more than to grab Belle's hand and take her far away.

Maybe to Paris.

Or Wonderland.

The trio of hell would never think to search for him there.

But he had promised Belle a family dinner, and he was fae enough to feel the weight of his own words as a compulsion to carry them out. Better to give in willingly, and set as many rules as he had been able to conceive, to try and control the disaster looming ahead.

Pan and the Black Fairy, he could trust to keep their word to the letter - and he'd grown up learning how to bind them effectively with a contract of no loopholes.

But Cruella was human, and thus would do as she willed.

Rumpelstiltskin seethed at the knowledge there was nothing he could do to stop her, and worried that her target would be the woman at his side. She had played the doting aunt for Belle, with animated phone calls and a few friendly lunches behind his back.

But now that Belle had been lured here, would she keep herself to the occasional snide remark she couldn’t help herself from, or would she do her best to tear down a sweet girl like Belle?

If she did, Rumpelstiltskin was certain he would unleash his own anger in full.

That would terrify Belle away for certain.

There was just no way for him to win this. Even by human standards he wasn’t what Belle deserved. It would be foolishness to believe she would accept the whole of him.

He just had to accept that and try to move on.

Belle picked up on his mood, but her sympathetic look said she'd decided his nerves were for a different reason. "I'm sure Ella isn't angry with you," she told him sweetly, grabbing his hand in reassurance, "not even if it's really been that long since you visited her."

Rumpelstiltskin grimaced.

His birth mother had played her cards well. Tugging at Belle's heartstrings didn't require much of a masterful hand, but Cruella had still given it her best. The story of a distant family member looking to reconnect with one of her few living relatives had earned Belle's support from the first moment. She had asked questions, then probed for his willingness to reunite with his 'mother's much, much younger sister', and when Belle had found him loath at the idea, she had told him at length about how she wished to be in his shoes, and how much she missed having a family, and how lucky he was that Ella would have searched for him...

His sweet Belle had pressed and prodded, and, quite frankly, pushed with single-minded stubbornness until Rumpelstiltskin had agreed to this dinner.

But Rumpelstiltskin had gotten a promise in exchange, and he did trust _her_ to keep it. "If you feel uncomfortable at all..."

Belle smiled. "I'll tell you and let you see us out at once," she repeated dutifully. Then she squeezed his hand. "But it'll be fine. I'm sure I'm going to remember this first family dinner forever."

Rumpelstiltskin sighed. "That's what I'm afraid of."

 

The End  
21/01/17

**Author's Note:**

> COMMENTS ARE LOVE.
> 
> *points at comment box*


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